1--What is the title of your latest release?
THE BERLIN APARTMENT
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
A newly engaged couple – Uli and Lise – gets separated by the Berlin Wall and fight to return to each other; but as time, distance and suspicion grow, how long can true love survive in the divided city?
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I knew from the outset that the Berlin Wall was going to be a key feature of the story, so that gave me my location; however, it was something of a process to figure out where specifically in Berlin the story would take place. I considered several different sites along the Wall for the main action of the story, and my considerations for which neighborhood I would choose were much the same as for my characters: what is the soil composition? What does the underground infrastructure look like? How far apart are the “Berlin apartments” in question, and what do my characters see when they look out the window?
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Absolutely! I would want to go out dancing with Uli, Lise and Inge – preferably on a night where Inge decides to talk our way past a snobbish host.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Determined, thoughtful, loyal.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I ended up down a deep Stasi rabbit hole when I was doing my research for The Berlin Apartment. Some of the Stasi’s interrogation techniques were absolutely chilling, including the notion of “decomposition”, a form of gaslighting which left targets unsure of their own sanity.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I’m a lazy writer, so I edit while I draft – that way I’ve got less to do when I’ve reached the end.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Steak tartare and a glass of bone-dry rosé.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I do my best writing at my family’s cottage in the Great Lakes, where I have a lovely big desk at the back of the screened-in porch, tucked behind a stone fireplace.
10--Who is an author you admire?
David Nicholls.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
The first time I read Philippa Gregory’s novels about Tudor England, I knew I wanted to become an author.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I was walking to my parents’ house at dusk when I got the phone call from my agent telling me that we had a deal. I’m fairly certain that I floated the rest of the way there, and we ended up going out to a really lovely restaurant to celebrate – I think my dad stopped at pretty much every other table in the joint to tell everyone that his daughter was going to be a published author. Afterwards, I ended up back at my apartment where my roommate and I pulled out all the books we owned that had been published by the same imprint – it felt so surreal to know that I would soon be in their company. As I recall, the evening ended with a dance party, after my roommate called all our friends in the neighborhood who dropped everything to come join in the fun!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I really do love reading historical fiction, but these days I find myself leaning more contemporary.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
I’ve always loved The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I can still recite the whole first movie pretty much verbatim.
15--What is your favorite season?
For activities, winter; for fashion, fall; for adventure, summer; for hope, spring.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I’m a July baby, so I commandeer the July long weekend and invite as many friends as I can handle to the cottage for nice dinners and dock days.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I’ve been loving the new AMC adaptation of Interview with a Vampire. In terms of podcasts, I’ve been listening to Even the Royals – they’ve got a great six-part series on Henry VIII’s wives.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
To make, Italian. Dining out, Japanese.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I love cooking, so I take any excuse I can to throw dinner parties.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I’m working on two novels concurrently: one historical, and one a contemporary rom com.
For fans of Kate Quinn and Kristin Hannah, this sweeping love story follows a young couple whose lives are irrevocably changed when they’re separated overnight by the construction of the Berlin Wall.
Berlin 1961: When Uli Neumann proposes to Lise Bauer, she has every reason to accept. He offers her love, respect, and a life beyond the strict bounds of the East German society in which she was raised — which she longs to leave more than anything. But only two short days after their engagement, Lise and Uli are torn violently apart when barbed wire is rolled across Berlin, splitting the city into two hostile halves: capitalist West Berlin, an island of western influence isolated far beyond the iron curtain; and the socialist East, a country determined to control its citizens by any means necessary.
Soon, Uli and his friends in West Berlin hatch a plan to get Lise and her unborn child out of East Germany, but as distance and suspicion bleed into their lives and as weeks turn to months, how long can true love survive in the divided city?
Women's Fiction Historical [MIRA, On Sale: September 3, 2024, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780778305453 / eISBN: 9780369747877]
Bryn Turnbull is the bestselling author of The Woman Before Wallis. Equipped with a master's of letters in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews, a master's of professional communication from Ryerson University and a bachelor's degree in English literature from McGill University, Bryn focuses on finding stories of women lost within the cracks of the historical record. She lives in Toronto.
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